


Chemistry Experiments

by fuzzballsheltiepants



Series: High School Science [1]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, And Some Real Facts Too, Fake Facts About Koalas, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff, Homophobic Language, It's me so, M/M, Prom, mostly - Freeform, ya know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-01
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-05-31 20:54:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15127625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fuzzballsheltiepants/pseuds/fuzzballsheltiepants
Summary: Andrew's unfairly hot chemistry lab partner needs a date for the prom to appease his uncle.  Andrew agrees...for a fee.





	Chemistry Experiments

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tntwme](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tntwme/gifts).



> I had way too much fun with this! There is some mild homophobic language and related mild violence, DM me if you need to know more. Thanks as always to @tntwme for the beta.

The familiar rustling thump of a backpack being dropped was punctuated by an irritated sigh.  Andrew kept his head pillowed on his arms, opening his eyes just enough to see Neil flop onto the stool next to him.  Mr. Krupac was still writing out the experiment on the blackboard, so Andrew took a moment to surreptitiously appreciate the way Neil looked with his face flushed, his pupils blown wide with anger.  Before Neil noticed him, he closed his eyes again and pretended to sleep, trying not to imagine that look on Neil’s face for a different reason.  
  
Mr. Krupac’s nasal drone calling for attention had him unfurling from where he was curled over the lab bench.  He scanned the instructions on the board and pulled out his calculator.  Neil was doing the same.  Andrew ignored him and the way he scrawled the equations across the paper.  He hated the precision of his own writing; he had always wanted to have handwriting that was interesting or unique in its messiness, but his hands refused to obey.    
  
When they were finished, they exchanged papers to double check before starting the experiment.  Andrew squinted to try to decipher whatever the fuck Neil had written.  It was even worse than usual, more nondescript waves than actual letters or numbers.    
  
“You missed a decimal,” Neil said next to him.  
  
“Whatever,” Andrew said, snatching his paper back.  “You missed writing actual numbers.”  
  
“It’s five milliliters sulphuric acid, not fifty,” Neil said, grabbing his own sheet.  “Though I bet something entertaining would happen if you actually added fifty milliliters.”  He cocked his head as he looked at his writing.  “And you’re right.  Jesus, even _I_ can’t read this.”  
  
Andrew snorted and corrected his math.  Neil watched over his shoulder, and Andrew resisted elbowing him in the gut for hovering.  When he was done, Neil nodded and they brought Andrew’s paper to Mr. Krupac to check before gathering their supplies.  
  
Neil was minus his usual inane chatter while they pulled on their gloves and goggles.  Andrew lit the Bunsen burner.  Day one he had claimed control over the hiss of the gas and the satisfying little whoosh as it lit, and Neil never objected, but today he was glaring at the blue flame like it had kicked a puppy instead of measuring out the dry ingredients on the tiny little scale like he was supposed to.    
  
“What the fuck is your problem, Josten?” Andrew asked.  
  
“Language, Mr. Minyard!” Mr. Krupac called out to him, sounding as scandalized as possible for a human cartoon character.  Andrew barely refrained from flipping him off.  He didn’t need yet another detention and the resulting quiet lecture from Bee.  
  
“Sorry,” Neil said, checking Andrew’s paper.  He began to measure out the powdered bases with sharp, jerky movements rather than his usual smooth grace.  When he accidentally dusted the black benchtop with white powder Andrew gritted his teeth and took the equipment from him.  
  
“Sit down and pretend that you’re monitoring the fluid temperature,” he hissed.  
  
Neil did as he was told for once.  Andrew finished the prep just as the liquid reached the right temperature; they added it drop by drop, Neil stirring carefully, until the powder in the beaker turned abruptly into a translucent yellow liquid and emitted a sharp odor that had them both blinking hard behind their goggles.  “That can’t be right,” Neil muttered.  
  
“Did you even read the fu—the assignment?” Andrew asked.  “Or did you just cut straight to the math?”  
  
Neil looked at him blankly and he pointed to the board.  “Oh,” he said as he read the last paragraph.  “So it’s supposed to smell.”  
  
Fucking idiot.  “Yes,” Andrew said in a mocking tone, “it’s supposed to smell.”  Across the room there was a yelp and a plume of smoke erupted, setting everyone in the vicinity coughing.  “Not like that,” he observed, gesturing over his shoulder.  
  
Their experiment done, they waited for Mr. Krupac to come by to check it.  Neil slumped in his chair, knee jogging, fingers tapping.  Andrew glared until Neil caught on and blushed.  “Sorry,” Neil said again.  “I’m just…”  He waved his hand right as Krupac appeared, looked at the liquid, sniffed it, checked their paper, and moved on.  No effusive compliments for them, of course.  Not that Andrew expected any.  They were always done first, and their experiments were always correct.  It was the only reason he hadn’t demanded a lab partner trade at the semester break.  
  
“What, did your favorite pair of running shoes give out or something?”    
  
“Huh?” Neil asked eloquently.  
  
“Is that why you’re even more of a dumpster fire than usual?”  
  
Neil looked more amused than offended.  “At least I can do basic math without mixing up my decimals.”  
  
“Okay, you’re a math genius who’s practically illiterate.”  Andrew faked applause.  “Still doesn’t explain why you’re functioning at the level of a koala.”  
  
Neil’s brow furrowed.  “A koala?  Like, the cuddly gray things from Australia?”  Andrew nodded.  “What’s wrong with koalas?”  
  
“They’re slow, they’re poisonous, and they carry chlamydia.”  
  
“Wait, they’re poisonous?  I didn’t think they were aggressive.”  
  
Andrew’s eyes rolled so hard he was amazed he didn’t pull a muscle.  “Poisonous, as in if you eat them you’ll get sick.”  
  
“Why the hell would I eat a koala?”  
  
“Catch up, Josten.  _You’re_ the fucking koala.”  
  
“Mr. Minyard!”  Shit.  “I am not warning you again,” Mr. Krupac said sternly.  
  
Andrew acknowledged him with the faintest of nods.  He looked back at Neil to find him smirking.  “I can assure you I don’t have chlamydia, at least.”  
  
“Still not answering my question.”  
  
Neil’s sigh could have been heard from space.  “So, my uncle found out that I turned down Marissa Engle for prom,” he said in a low voice.    
  
“I fail to see the problem,” Andrew said, when nothing more was forthcoming.  
  
“Uncle Stuart works with her mother, they’re like, family friends.  So he’s annoyed.”  
  
“Why did you turn her down, then?”  
  
“I don’t like her, not like that.  And if we go to prom, she’s going to think we’re going out, and I just can’t deal with it.”  
  
Andrew could understand that; Marissa was the particularly annoying friend of his brother’s rather annoying girlfriend.  “So why didn’t you tell your uncle that?”  
  
“I did.  He thinks I should go with her anyway, ‘as friends.’  So, I lied and told him I’d asked someone else.”  
  
Andrew shrugged.  “Go stag.”  
  
“I can’t.  He got way too excited and started talking about photos in the back yard and having the parents over for cocktails and hiring a limo and I panicked and ran.”  
  
Andrew’s response was interrupted by a stream of cursing and a large cloud of green smoke billowing from nearby.  “Out!” Mr. Krupac shouted.  “Everybody out!”  
  
The whole class grabbed their backpacks and ran, screaming and giggling, out into the hallway.  Except Andrew, who strolled casually, and Neil, who bobbed along next to him like a helium balloon.  There were still a few minutes before the bell was supposed to ring, so Andrew headed outside and sat down on the planter by the door.  He searched his pockets automatically then remembered Bee had flushed his cigarettes down the toilet.  Cursing internally, he looked up to where Neil was hovering.  “Yes?”  
  
“What do I do?”  
  
“What the fuck do I care?”  
  
Neil shrugged, then offered, “I’ll be a less annoying lab partner if I don’t have to worry about this.”  
  
“You’re always annoying.”  
  
“I said ‘less’.”  
  
Andrew considered for a moment.  “Ask one of your asshole friends.  Allison, or Thea.”  
  
“Allison’s going with Renee Walker, and Thea’s going with Kevin Day.”  
  
It was a hard thing to keep his eyebrows from shooting up at the news that Allison Reynolds, rich bitch extraordinaire, was going to prom with a girl, let alone one from Renee’s background.  “Then hire a ringer.”  
  
“A ringer?”  
  
“Someone who doesn’t give a shit but you can bribe them into going.”  The bell rang, but Andrew didn’t move; his next class was close, so he had a couple more minutes to enjoy the spring air.  
  
Neil was looking at him, cold calculation all over his face.  “You wouldn’t happen to be willing, would you?”  
  
“Fuck you.”  Andrew got to his feet and headed into the building.  Neil followed right behind him.  
  
“No, listen.  It’s perfect.  You don’t like me—”  
  
“I hate you,” Andrew corrected, not feeling even the slightest twinge of conscience at the lie.  Bee was not right about everything.  
  
“Fine, you hate me.  But we can stand being in each other’s presence for a while, because we do it every week.”  
  
They were close to Andrew’s classroom.  He spun on his heel and shoved Neil into the lockers, earning a few “Whoa”s from the handful of students nearby.  Nobody intervened; they took one look at Andrew and scattered.  “What’s in it for me?”  
  
Neil looked utterly unconcerned about being pinned against the lockers by a boy with a well-known criminal record.  “I’ll buy you ice cream every day for the rest of the school year?”  
  
Andrew thought for a moment.  “You have your license?”  Neil nodded.  “Cigarettes.  Marlboros.  Two packs a week until the end of the school year.”  There was a month left; that was eight packs of cigarettes.  He’d be able to hide at least some of them from Bee.  
  
Neil frowned.  “You shouldn’t smoke.”  
  
“Have a nice prom,” Andrew said, releasing him and turning away.  “Enjoy your new girlfriend, whoever she may be.”  
  
“Wait.”  The next bell was about to go off; Andrew had his hand on his classroom door but he turned back to Neil.  “Fine.  Two packs a week, and I’ll even spare you the lecture.”  
  
“Deal,” Andrew said.  He made it through the door just as the bell rang.  
  
*****  
  
Neil was in a much better mood the next morning when he dropped into his seat in chemistry, despite the test that was looming.  It was all molar calculation shit, right up his alley, Andrew thought with just a touch of bitterness.  
  
“We good?” Neil said quietly, the faintest of smiles playing on his face.  
  
Andrew had been kicking himself all night, even though he always claimed he didn’t believe in regret.  He was going to have to tell Bee about this.  Plus Aaron was never going to let it go, especially after all the crap Andrew had given him about the cheerleader.  And here was Neil, looking entirely too happy about the whole thing.  “Is this some sort of ‘She’s All That’ situation?” he asked.  
  
“What?”  The confusion seemed genuine, at least.  
  
“Do you have a bet going on?”  
  
 “About what?”  
  
Andrew just shook his head as Mr. Krupac began handing out test papers.  It was all the stuff they’d been working on the past week, even two of the equations were exactly the same.  Andrew answered those without even needing to do the math, then turned to his calculator for the rest.  
  
If he double-checked his decimals, nobody needed to know.  
  
As usual, he and Neil were the first ones finished; Neil beat him for once.  After Andrew handed his paper in, he wandered outside again, only to find Neil already there under the overhang.  It was raining, so Andrew leaned back against the wall and crossed his arms.    
  
“How’d the test go?” Neil asked after a pause.    
  
“Boring,” Andrew said.    
  
“Yeah, it was pretty easy.”  
  
“I meant you, idiot.”  
  
Neil laughed.  “My apologies, O King of Excitement.”  He gave a small mocking bow.  “Anyway, we should probably talk about how this is going to go.”  
  
Andrew held out a hand silently.  Neil stared at it for a moment, then rummaged in his bag and pulled out a pack.  Marlboro Reds.  “Go on,” Andrew said, pocketing them.  
  
“Uncle Stuart really wants to do the whole stupid tradition thing with the pictures and the suits and all that, and I wanted to make sure that was okay.”  
  
“Tell me this first.  Is asking a guy an extra ‘fuck you’ to your uncle for forcing your hand?”  
  
Neil blinked at him.  “Uh, no?  He’d rather I be gay than…nothing.”  
  
Well, that was unexpected.  “What are you, ace?”  
  
“Ugh.”  Neil started to go back inside, then stopped, and there was real anger in his face.  “I don’t know what I am, okay?  And I don’t see why it matters.”  
  
“It doesn’t,” Andrew said.  
  
Neil went on like Andrew hadn’t spoken.  “Are you embarrassed to be going with a guy?  Is that what it is?”  
  
Andrew laughed without humor and brandished his Marlboros.  “I don’t give a shit.”  This time the lie burned like acid.  Neil stared at him for a long moment, then shook his head and shoved through the door.  
  
*****  
  
After lunch Andrew went out to his preferred smoking spot and shook a cigarette out of Neil’s pack.  Bee hadn’t thought to confiscate his lighter, he realized with amusement.  Hopefully that wouldn’t occur to her for a while.  
  
Nicotine flooded his bloodstream and he leaned back against the school wall to enjoy the feeling.  The taste, the smell, the faint burn in his throat and lungs, the rough brick against his back, the hum of the students in the halls on the other side of that wall, everything familiar and real and now.  Not quite peace, but something.  
  
The door opened and he moved to stub out his cigarette until he saw a shock of auburn hair.  Neil settled against the wall next to him.  “You don’t need to do this.”  
  
“I told you I would,” Andrew said, taking another drag.  
  
Neil hummed but didn’t answer.  It occurred to Andrew that they had spent more time together outside of class in the past two days than in the nearly three years of high school so far.  It was such a strange thing, how people split into their little groups and just stayed there, for years.  They formed their whole little ecosystems that were barely compatible, and few were bold enough to migrate between them.  Not that Andrew minded; talking to people was exhausting.  They weren’t worth it.  He found his eyes straying to Neil.  _Most of the them, anyway_.  
  
“What do we do at prom anyway?” Neil asked.  “I mean, it’s like, a dance, right?”  
  
Okay, maybe everybody really was useless.  “Were you dropped on your head as a baby?” Andrew asked.  
  
Neil huffed but couldn’t hide his smile.  “Do you know how to dance?  Because I don’t.”  
  
“I’m not going to fucking dance with you, Josten.”  
  
“God, you really are an asshole, aren’t you,” he said, rolling his eyes.  That smile was gone.  “You can no-homo it if you need to.”  
  
Andrew debated lighting another cigarette just to put it out on Neil’s skin.  He debated walking out of school and driving himself home, leaving Aaron to fend for himself.  He debated grabbing Neil by the collar of his hideous oversized shirt and dragging him down into a kiss.  
  
Pushing away from the wall he stalked past Neil, then stopped at the door.  Neil was watching him when he looked back, the same flare of anger in his eyes as he had had that morning.  It was that flame that drew him back, like some stupid moth.  Only unlike the moth he knew how easily he could get burned.  
  
“I’m gay, you fucking idiot,” he snarled in Neil’s face.    
  
“Then why the hell are you acting like a douchebag about this?” Neil snapped back.  
  
“Just because I’m gay doesn’t mean I want to dance at the fucking prom.  It’s entirely designed to make less popular kids feel shitty about themselves and I don’t want to participate in that grand tradition, okay?”  
  
Neil blinked.  “Okay,” he said, little more than a whisper.  “We won’t dance.”  
  
The bell rang and Andrew pushed away from him, trying not to think about how close they had been, about how he had been able to feel Neil’s body heat, his breath.  As close as if they had already been dancing, and Neil hadn’t flinched away.    
  
“Get a decent tux,” he said over his shoulder.  “I refuse to be seen with you wearing the oversized thrift-store shit you always wear.”  
  
He grinned inwardly as he walked to class, the memory of Neil’s extended middle finger now permanently engraved on his brain.  
  
*****  
  
Bee was excessively cheerful as always that night.  You would think living with two surly teenage boys would dampen that somehow, but it seemed to give her strength.  Andrew wondered sometimes if she was some sort of supernatural creature that fed off of grumpiness.    
  
So he was a little taken aback by the seriousness of her expression when she dropped down onto the couch next to him after dinner.  “What’s up with you?” she asked.  
  
“I’m troubled by the disappearance of the polar ice caps.”  
  
“That’s not new the past two days.”  
  
“The country is in the process of falling under a fascist dictator.”  
  
“Also not new.  Come on, Andrew.  We can drag this out all night, or you can tell me and get back to reading _2001_.  Your choice.”  
  
“This book sucks.”  
  
She laughed.  “And me pulling verbal teeth out without anesthetic doesn’t?”  
  
Fair point.  “Ice cream?”  
  
“With chocolate sauce and whipped cream,” she offered.  “ _After_ you talk to me.”  
  
 He let his head drop back onto the arm of the couch.  “Fine.  I’m going to prom.”  
  
If he had planned this out better, he would have had his phone ready to videotape the kaleidoscope of expressions that passed over Bee’s face.  Not that he wouldn’t remember it, but he wanted to post it online with some sort of musical backdrop.  
  
Once she had settled on calm acceptance, Bee said in her very best psychologist voice, “Well good for you.  Now, how did that come about?”  
  
“Seriously, Bee?  That’s the best you have?  That is, like, third year psych student reaction at best.”  
  
She laughed.  “Sorry.  I’m honestly just a little bit shocked you’d ever agree!”  
  
“Don’t lie, you just can’t believe anybody asked me.”  
  
“That’s bullshit and you know it.”  
  
Andrew huffed a laugh; after four years it still surprised him when Bee swore.  “It’s my lab partner.”  
  
“Neil?”  He nodded; she looked thoughtful.  “Is that how you want to come out at school?”  
  
“I don’t really care.”  
  
“And what about Neil?  Is he out?”  
  
Andrew shrugged.  “Not my problem.”    
  
“I suppose that’s true.”  She stood up and dusted her clean hands off on her pants.  “Shall we talk details while we eat our ice cream?”  
  
*****  
  
Suddenly it seemed like whenever Andrew turned around, Neil was there.  Every day after lunch, Neil followed him outside; they argued more than ever in chemistry; when Andrew was having a quick smoke before driving home, Neil would join him.  They talked, about books or music or the end of the world or ways to assassinate the president without getting caught.  Or they didn’t, and the silences were natural as breathing.  
  
Andrew didn’t know what to make of it.  He thought maybe he hated Neil even more.  
  
The last day of prom ticket sales came, and Andrew realized he had never asked Neil about the tickets.  Not that he cared.  Maybe Neil would forget, and this whole stupid charade would be done with.  Sure, his cigarette supply would dry up, but he could manage something.  
  
On his way to lunch, he passed Neil standing at the ticket table talking to Allison and cursed inwardly.  He slowed down as he passed, pretending to skim the announcements pinned to the school office window.  “I thought you weren’t going,” Allison was saying.  
  
“Changed my mind.”  
  
“Didn’t Marissa get another date?”  
  
“Mmhmm.”  
  
“Then who?”  
  
Andrew could hear the laughter in Neil’s voice.  “Wouldn’t you like to know?  But you’re going to have to find out along with everybody else.”  He risked a glance to catch Neil holding his hand out, Allison glaring at him before handing him two tickets with an exaggerated flourish.  
  
Well.  It was official, then.  Andrew wondered if Neil was going to make him regret it.  
  
*****  
  
Andrew was reading—turns out _The Martian_ was far more fun than _2001: A Space Odyssey_ no matter what the critics said—when Aaron kicked open his door.  “When were you going to fucking tell me?”  
  
“Tell you what?”  Given that Aaron was holding two tuxes in his hand, he was pretty sure what he was going on about, but fucking with him was always amusing.  
  
“Are you seriously going to prom?”  
  
“You obviously know I am.”  
  
“Asshole,” he spat.  “You can’t let me and Katelyn have one night without you being all creepy and weird?”  
  
“Paranoid much?”  The look Aaron shot him could melt paint.  “Me going has nothing to do with you.”  
  
“That is such bullshit.  Like you would ever go to prom on your own.”  
  
“I’m not going on my own.”  
  
That made Aaron pause.  “Bullshit,” he said again, but doubt had crept into his voice.  “Who are you going with?”  
  
“Josten.”  
  
“Neil?”  Aaron snorted.  “Now I know you’re lying.  Neil’s not gay, he’s made out with like half the cheerleading squad.”  
  
Okay, Andrew did not need to know that little detail.  “Well, he’s not straight either, so fuck off.”  
  
“You would never in a million years ask out someone like Neil Josten.”  
  
“I didn’t ask him,” Andrew said, feeling the smile start and not trying to prevent it.  “He asked me.”  
  
Aaron stared at him for a long minute.  “Whatever,” he said, throwing one of the tuxes at him.  “Just stay away from me and Katelyn.”  
  
Andrew picked the suit up from where it had sprawled across his bed, looking vaguely like a crime scene, and hung it carefully on his closet door.  “Trust me, I have no desire to spend the night watching you with your tongue down the cheerleader’s throat.  Get out of my fucking room.”  
  
Aaron took a step back, so he was standing in the doorway, but he didn’t leave.  Andrew walked over to the door and slammed it in his face.  
  
*****  
  
Neil was not kidding even a little bit about his uncle’s bizarre enthusiasm for this ridiculous tradition, Andrew realized as he and Bee were ushered into a large backyard.  Kevin and Thea were already there, both way too self-important to be believed.  Neil was, too, looking like he was regretting all his life choices when Mr. Hatford handed an amused Bee a flute of champagne and started chattering about whatever bullshit adults talked about in situations like this.    
  
Andrew made his way over to Neil, where he was met with a sheepish smile.  “I warned you,” Neil muttered.  “He thinks this whole thing is a riot.  I guess proms in Britain are a totally different thing with a lot more sanctioned alcohol and a lot less stupid picture-taking.”  
  
“Sounds better already.”  
  
Neil laughed.  “Yeah.”  They watched Bee and Mr. Hatford chat animatedly for a while, while Kevin and Thea debated the best spots for pictures.  “Where’s your brother?  Uncle Stuart said he invited him.”  
  
Andrew made a disdainful sound.  “Yeah, that was a hard no.  Aaron thinks I’m only going to prom to annoy him.”  
  
“Huh.  I can’t imagine you wasting your time on something like that.”  
  
“Time?  Sure.  Money?  Hell no.”  
  
Neil grinned; Andrew looked away.  He couldn’t stand that expression on Neil’s face, the brightness and quick humor.  It felt too much like teetering on the edge of a precipice and wanting to fall.  Bee was watching them and pretending not to.  He gave her a sarcastic two-finger salute and she quickly looked away.  There was always a little bit of secret satisfaction when he managed to embarrass the unembarrassable.  
  
Kevin came over and nodded at Andrew before saying to Neil, “We should get started, the limo will be here soon.”  
  
“In, like, half an hour, Kev.”  
  
“Yeah, that’s barely enough time.  Did you get boutonnieres?” he asked, looking sternly between them, evidently blind to what Andrew was holding in his hand.  
  
“Yes, Kevin, we got boutonnieres,” Neil said, rolling his eyes.  
  
“Come on, Neil, you need to do this right.  If this is how you’re coming out—”  
  
Andrew interrupted.  “Are you seriously going to lecture us on how to be gay?  Because if so I’m walking the fuck out of here right now.”  
  
Kevin quailed under his glare.  “I’m not…I wasn’t…Just get ready for pictures, okay?”  
  
“Wow,” Neil said quietly once Kevin was out of earshot.  “That was kind of hilarious.”  
  
“He’s a dick.”  
  
“He’s not that bad,” Neil said.  Andrew looked at him flatly; he wondered if Neil knew he and Kevin had been friends in middle school.  “Okay, yeah, sometimes he’s kind of a dick.  But maybe we should get moving.”  
  
Mr. Hatford and Bee and a man who had to be Kevin’s father started congregating around Kevin and Thea in front of one of the big flowering bushes.  Neil reached down to pick something up off one of the deck chairs.  He hesitated for a moment, then held it out.  “Here.”  
  
It was a clear plastic box containing a small yellow rose with a spray of baby’s breath, identical to the one Andrew had gotten for Neil; but that wasn’t what caught Andrew’s eye.  A tiny toy koala was holding the base of the boutonniere.  He popped the box open and picked it up.  The koala’s arms opened and closed when he pinched the back.  “I looked it up,” Neil said.  “They’re not poisonous, they just taste really bad.  So European settlers thought they were poisonous until they saw indigenous people eating them during a famine.”  
  
The little koala was soft.  Andrew unclipped it from the flower and let it grab onto his finger.  The grip was surprisingly hard; his finger quickly went numb and he released it, setting the koala back in the box.  Neil held out his hand and Andrew handed it over.  “Can I?” Neil asked, picking up the boutonniere.  Andrew nodded, and Neil carefully tucked the flower into the buttonhole on the lapel, then clipped the koala just below.  
  
“You should wear the koala,” Andrew said, relieved that his voice was steady.  
  
“Nah.  This makes more sense.  I mean, if I’m the koala, you’re the one stuck with me.”  
  
Andrew didn’t have an answer to that.  Wordlessly he arranged the boutonniere he had gotten in Neil’s lapel.  He was wearing a rich dark gray, almost a charcoal, and it was striking against his hair and eyes.  “Who dressed you?” he asked when he was done.  
  
Neil looked at him in confusion.   “No one?”  
  
“Bullshit.  I know you didn’t pick this out yourself.”  
  
“Oh.  Yeah, no, Allison did.”  
  
Figured.    
  
When they turned to join the others for photographs, everyone was staring at them.  Andrew had never seen that expression in Bee’s eyes, not even on the day the adoption went through.  “You’re getting soft, Dr. Dobson,” he said as he passed her.  
  
“Hush,” she said.  “I’m allowed to be happy for you.”  
  
Andrew let himself be posed and placed and rearranged, ignoring the click of the various cameras and phones.  He was overly conscious of the heat of Neil’s body next to him, the slight brush of their shoulders, the sound of his breathing.    
  
He was an idiot.  An absolute fucking idiot, for thinking he could do this and not let himself care.  
  
*****  
  
Not all that many things in life lived up to movie stereotypes.  Andrew was perversely satisfied to find out that prom truly did.  The horrible cheesiness of the fairy lights, the over-the-top decor and appalling music, the ridiculous dresses and the squealing and the whispered cattiness all belonged on a Hollywood set.    
  
Barely five minutes in and Neil was completely unable to stop laughing.  It just kept bubbling out of him every time he tried to talk.  “Oh, god, look at that.”  Neil pointed out a photographer in front of a hideous backdrop, carefully posing a couple so they were gazing dreamily into each other’s eyes.  “I am so sorry, I can’t believe I made you come to this.  Whatever you did that put you in juvie, you don’t deserve this.”  
  
“Assault,” Andrew said, and Neil finally quieted.  “It was assault and battery.  And I thought up until now that in America you could only get punished once for the same crime, but clearly I was mistaken.”  
  
“It’s like some terrible movie,” Neil said.  “After being released from prison,” he went on, in a movie-announcer voice, “Andrew Minyard finds himself facing punishment a second time.  Only this time, it’s _prom_.”  Andrew tried to hold back his laugh but failed, and the two of them were collapsed in their seats, still going, when Neil’s friends found them.  
  
Kevin and Thea sank into chairs on the other side of Neil, while Renee and Allison took seats across from them.  “Hello, Andrew,” Renee said, with her gentle smile.  Andrew wasn’t fooled; they’d been training in martial arts together since Bee had sweet-talked the judge into letting him out of juvie early.  She could kick his ass and that of everyone in this school, and she knew it.  
  
Allison looked Andrew up and down.  “Nice bear,” she said.  
  
“It’s a koala,” Andrew and Neil said in unison.  “They’re not bears,” Neil added.    
  
She punched Neil in the arm.  “Ow,” he said, rubbing it with an aggrieved expression.  “What the hell?”  
  
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Allison demanded.  “Here I am wondering why you’re turning down every girl in school, and it’s because you’ve been crushing on the Monster?”  
  
“Don’t,” Neil snapped, and she put up her hands in surrender.  This was clearly an argument they’d had before.  
  
“He knows that’s his nickname.  Right, Andrew?”  Andrew didn’t answer, but unlike Kevin she didn’t wilt under his stare.  She flipped an artfully curled chunk of hair over her shoulder and met his eyes.  “Okay.  I won’t call you that.”  He held her gaze for a moment longer then gave a curt nod.  It wasn’t that he even really cared that people called him that; better to be seen a monster than a victim.  
  
Soon Neil was embroiled in an argument about football with Kevin and Thea, and Renee and Andrew were debating if humans or an asteroid would destroy the earth first.  Andrew had to admit that Renee may have a point when she said that humans might destroy all the larger life forms on earth, themselves included, but the planet itself would survive.  Of course, he argued that the earth had already survived multiple asteroid hits too.  
  
“So what you’re saying is, humans are no worse than a giant ball of rock.  But the rock doesn’t know what it’s doing.  It doesn’t have a choice, we do, and we’re choosing wrong.”  
  
“That’s true, but we can always choose to do better, can’t we?  Whereas the asteroid is going to hit or not hit based entirely on chance and gravity.”  
  
“Human nature being what it is, though, we seldom choose to do the right thing,” Neil piped in, and Andrew almost startled; he hadn’t realized Neil had been listening.  “If there’s a profit to be had, someone’s going to go for it.  They’re not going to give a shit about the long-term consequences.”  
  
“As we have daily proof,” Allison said.  
  
Kevin joined in with a brief lecture on the history of capitalism until Allison dropped her head on her arms and started snoring loudly.  Neil and Thea burst out laughing and Kevin shot her a filthy look when she pretended to startle awake.    
  
A few people got up and started dancing, and Renee and Allison joined them.  Kevin and Thea showed no inclination to do the same; they stayed and talked over a wide variety of subjects, mostly disagreeing with each other, with Neil joining in on Thea’s side here and there.  Andrew listened while he watched the dancers, mostly awkward and self-conscious, stumbling around on the dance floor.    
  
One of the seniors whose name Andrew didn’t know ambled over, and Neil tensed up next to him before relaxing.  “Josten, I have to say, I had higher expectations of you,” the guy sneered.  “I mean, I can’t say I’m all that surprised the Monster is a faggot.  He probably learned that in prison—”  
  
Neil leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.  “Don’t worry about Seth,” he said loudly to Andrew.  “He’s just having a hard time since he realized Renee can satisfy Allison better than he ever could.”  
  
Andrew glanced at Seth’s crotch, then looked back at Neil.  “Can’t say I’m overly surprised about that.”  
  
“You little asshole,” Seth snarled, reaching for Neil.  The second his hands were on him, Andrew grabbed his wrist, exploded out of his chair, and torqued Seth’s arm behind him.  A quick kick to the back of his knees had him dropping to the floor.  
  
“Not so big now, are you?” Andrew said calmly.  A couple of chaperones had heard the commotion and were heading their way.  “Now fuck off and leave us alone.”  He released Seth and dropped back into his chair with as much nonchalance as he could muster.  Seth got to his feet, face flushed, just as the first teacher reached them.  
  
“What’s going on over here?” Ms. LaChappelle asked.    
  
It was Kevin who spoke up first.  “Seth came over, called Andrew a homophobic slur, then attacked Neil.  Andrew intervened when Seth grabbed him and prevented him from doing something worse.”  Andrew tried not to faint from shock that Kevin had spoken up in his defense.  
  
“Is this true?”  Thea, Neil, and Andrew all nodded while Seth tried to protest.  Ms. LaChappelle pointed towards the door into the hotel hallway, and Seth headed out, arguing all the way.  
  
“Jesus, Neil,” Kevin said, shaking his head.  “How do you always manage to bring out the worst in people?”  
  
“Natural talent,” Neil said, grinning.  Andrew stared at Kevin; he wondered if he remembered saying almost the same thing to Andrew back in eighth grade, precipitating the fight that had ended their friendship.  Judging by Kevin’s guilty start, he did.  Andrew stood up; Neil looked at him questioningly, and in answer Andrew pulled out the lone cigarette he had brought before turning and weaving his way through dancers towards the door.  He passed Aaron, so close to his cheerleader it was like they had fused into one being, and Allison and Renee, oblivious to anything but each other.  
  
Punching through the door, he made his way to the corner of the building before lighting up.  Tilting his head back, he looked up at the sky.  Clouds filtered the moonlight and obscured most of the stars, but gaps showed a few brilliant points of light.  He exhaled, and the smoke blocked them out before a faint breeze blew it away.  
  
The scrape of shoe on pavement drew his attention back to earth, and he turned to see Neil a few paces away.  “I don’t need a babysitter.”  
  
“I know.  Kevin and Thea started making out after you left and I was bored.”  
  
“I’ve been out here for thirty seconds.  You need to work on your attention span.”  
  
Neil came closer.  Andrew took a drag and blew the smoke in his direction, expecting a cough.  Neil leaned in and inhaled instead.  “You have a weird kink for second-hand smoke?”  
  
“My mother used to smoke,” he admitted.  His mother, who had died in a fiery car crash years earlier, according to school gossip.  There was some sort of irony there but Andrew didn’t feel like teasing it out.  He turned back to the scant stars instead.  
  
When he finished his cigarette and ground out the butt, he turned to find Neil standing right behind him.  “Still bored?”  
  
“I want to kiss you,” Neil said, and Andrew’s stomach lurched with fury.  
  
“I am not here to satisfy your curiosity, asshole, and I’m not going to get you off.  I fulfilled my part of our deal.”  
  
“I know.  It’s not about that.”  He waved a hand, frustration pinching his features.  “I’ve never kissed anybody I actually liked before.”  
  
Andrew put a hand against his chest and shoved, not hard, but enough to push him back a step.    “I don’t need your fucking pity.”  
  
“What?  No, that is so not what is going on.”  He blew out a long breath.  “Look, I know I mostly just know you from class, but you’re one of my favorite people at school, okay?  You don’t give a shit what anybody thinks, you just say what you mean and nobody else is like that.  And I’ve really had…fun, I guess, hanging out these last couple of weeks, and I don’t want it to end.”  
  
“You don’t need to kiss me to keep hanging out.”  
  
“I know,” Neil said.  “I just…want to.”  
  
Andrew cocked his head and studied him.  His face was open, honest; his eyes nearly colorless in the dim light.  Taking a step closer, Andrew murmured, “Yes or no?”  
  
“Yes,” Neil breathed, and leaned in.    
  
He tasted sweet, like strawberries and the cheesecake they’d had with dinner, and something else that was unique to him alone.  His mouth opened easily to Andrew’s, pliant but not passive, asking, not demanding.  Andrew lost himself in the glide of his tongue, the rhythm of his breathing, the soft roughness of his hair under Andrew’s fingers.  They kissed until Andrew’s lips were sore and his heart was racing, and when they broke apart Neil chased after his mouth until they were kissing again.  
  
Andrew didn’t know how long they were out there.  When they finally stopped, Neil’s face was flushed and his pupils were so wide his eyes looked black.  “Fuck,” Neil whispered.  Andrew felt the same way.  
  
They practically staggered back into the banquet hall.  Andrew was almost tipsy, like the one time he had gotten drunk but without the nausea.  Allison and Renee were back at the table, and Kevin and Thea were draped over each other on the dance floor.  Allison looked from Andrew to Neil.  “Jesus, Minyard,” she said admiringly.  “Good work.”  
  
“Fuck you,” Neil said, no heat in his voice.  She laughed, and even Renee joined in.  
  
“You messed up his bear,” Allison said.  
  
“Koala,” Neil corrected, and with a quick asking glance at Andrew he straightened it.    
  
The dance was winding down, and it wasn’t long before Kevin and Thea were ready to leave.  They found their limo among the dozens waiting and piled in.  Andrew looked out through the tinted window at the street lights passing by in a blur of pale yellow.  Something brushed the back of his hand and he looked down to see Neil’s thumb hovering.  He flipped his hand over and let Neil lace their fingers then looked back out the window, memorizing the feel of every point of contact.  
  
Kevin and Thea were dropped off first at an after party at the house of one of Thea’s friends.  The ride to Andrew’s house was quiet and before long they were turning onto his street.  “You still want your cigarettes?” Neil asked.  
  
“Of course I do, you stingy bastard.  Don’t think you can worm your way out of it with a few kisses.”  
  
Neil laughed.  “Can I?” he asked, holding a hand over Andrew’s cheek.  
  
Andrew nodded, and Neil cupped his jaw and tugged him in for a soft kiss.  The limo driver stopped in Bee’s driveway and they pulled apart.  “See you Monday,” Andrew said.  
  
Neil nodded; he looked like he wanted to say something, but didn’t.  Andrew got out and went into the house, not letting himself turn back to watch the limo go.  
  
*****  
  
Andrew was eating waffles and skillfully dodging Bee’s questions the next morning when his phone buzzed.  Renee had texted: _check Neil’s Instagram page_.  
  
Pulling up the app, he found Neil’s account.  There was a photo of the two of them, standing close, a small smile pulling at Neil’s lips while he clipped the koala onto Andrew’s lapel.  Andrew studied his own expression; he didn’t even recognize himself.  The caption read: _my favorite photo from an unexpected night_.  Warmth bloomed in his gut.  He clicked like and closed the app.  Unexpected was right, and for once maybe it was a good thing. 

**Author's Note:**

> Hope y'all enjoyed this one. HMU on Tumblr @fuzzballsheltiepants anytime!


End file.
